Professional Fellows Finish Their Stay in Arizona
By Drew Milne
On October 10, Professional Fellows Mai Nambooze and Kelvin Mkude concluded their visit to Tucson, Arizona. The preceding three weeks were a rich exchange of knowledge, resources, and culture; both for the Fellows and the Sonoran Center. They visited as a part of the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic Engagement.
They will apply the skills they’ve learned and the connections they’ve made to their follow-on projects. Follow-on projects are the next phase of the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic Engagement, giving Fellows the opportunity to implement the action plan they developed with their host organization, in this case the Sonoran Center.
Mai’s follow-on project involves gathering the experiences and knowledge of people with disabilities who’ve lived in institutions like orphanages and group homes. With this data, Mai hopes to help people currently in similar situations transition to family-based care.
“I'm going to interview care-leavers with disabilities who managed to transition by themselves, back to communities, to get a little of their experience on that. I'm also going to specifically target the matters of these children that are in institutions and also get their experience as well,” Mai said. “Then, I will share it with some of the participants that are going to be part of this project. After that, I will have to do the final report, and do a dissemination. Mostly online but also sharing soft copies of the report with as many organizations working with children as possible, as well as our Ministry of Gender and Labor and Social Development.”
For Kelvin’s follow-on project, he will start a training program to train Disability Ambassadors, who will advise institutions and hold them accountable.
As Kelvin explains, “I want to train persons with disabilities in Tanzania to become disability and development ambassadors for policy accountability and the implementation. In Tanzania, we have so many good laws pertaining to people with disabilities. We have good laws, but many of those are not implemented. The big implementers, the government and the private sector, are not doing as much as they should.”
The Professional Fellows Program is not just a learning opportunity for the Fellows, it is a knowledge exchange. To that end, Mai and Kelvin presented a seminar called “Ubuntu: African Perspectives on Community & Belonging – Sharing Cultural Values that Shape Social Support,” to share their perspective and knowledge with the U of A community at large.
This presentation was in-person at the Thomas W. Keating Bioscience Research Building, with online participation available. The presentation centered around the concept of Ubuntu, which means “I am because we are”. Essentially, it is the idea that “my well my well-being is up to you and your well-being is up to me. We can't do it alone,” as Mai explained. Mai and Kelvin shared how this principle guides disability services in Uganda and Tanzania, and where there are still shortcomings in living out the idea of Ubuntu.
“This is my call to action to all of you who are listening here to me,” Mai said. “Every child deserves a warmth and a belonging that only family and community can provide, so advocate with us for family-based care.”
Mai and Kelvin also met with the Sonoran Center’s Community Advisory Council, where they observed how the Center incorporates the voices of people with disabilities into the core of its mission and direction. They also met with the ArtWorks and continued to meet with the Center’s Employment First team.
Between all this, Kelvin and Mai still had time to experience the rich natural and cultural wonders of Southern Arizona.
They attended a University of Arizona football game with Gabe Martinez and his family.
They continued their adventures hiking, this time at the iconic ‘A’ Mountain.
Finally, they closed out their trip with a farewell dinner at Culinary Dropout, with the Martinez and Loftus families and Sonoran Center staff.
“We've been lucky that we are blessed by a family that has been taking us everywhere, making sure we are comfortable, making sure we are exploring, enjoying the culture, and enjoying the nice places,” Mai said. “We feel like part of the family, they are making our stay here feel really, really comfortable.”
Kelvin and Mai both discussed their experiences in more detail in their respective blog posts for the Professional Fellows Program.
The Sonoran Center is proud to have participated in the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic engagement for another year. We wish Mai and Kelvin all the best for their follow-on projects and all their future endeavors.
The Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic Engagement in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda is a program of the U.S. Department of State, administered by the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with the African Disability Forum (ADF).